Alabama News

An $11.565 million settlement with BP for financial damages to Baldwin County will pay attorneys an estimated $1.397 million in fees with expenses continuing to add to the total until the deal is "consummated," officials said today.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange is urging a federal judge in Louisiana to set a trial date to hear claims of lost tax revenue by the state and Louisiana against oil giant BP.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has spent much of the 15 months he has been in office pursuing efforts to recover losses by Alabama and other states because of the massive BP oil spill.

North Carolina and Alabama are sharply different when it comes to judicial elections. North Carolina pioneered full public financing for judicial elections, to reduce the influence of big money campaign funding on the courts. Alabama, on the other hand, has become known for holding the nation’s most costly state Supreme Court elections between 2000 and 2009.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange is gearing up for the trial of his lifetime on Feb. 27 in New Orleans, where he will play a lead role in the litigation against the companies involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Gov.-elect Phil Bryant has already expressed support for "loser pays."  He continues to monitor the effect of that change in Texas, said spokesman Mick Bullock. "In a recent visit to the Texas Medical Center, the governor-elect heard about how this legislation has benefited health care professionals in that state."

A federal judge in New Orleans has limited Louisiana and Alabama's ability to seek damages for pollution arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which fouled beaches and fishing grounds along the Gulf of Mexico.

The states can sue for negligence and products liability under general maritime law and are eligible for punitive damages, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said yesterday. He dismissed claims brought under state environmental laws, including demands for civil penalties, finding they were preempted by federal law governing the Outer Continental Shelf.

A group of plaintiffs represented by Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles won't be escaping federal jurisdiction over their claims that a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary sold them dangerously defective artificial hips.